Photo credit: Theonlysilentbob/Wikimedia Commons
In December 1994, Barrie, Ontario resident Linda Hunt left her office Christmas party with some colleagues and headed to a pub. She was drunk, and a snowstorm was sweeping through the city. After leaving the pub, Hunt was involved in a car accident that left her with brain damage and a fractured spine. She sued her employer for allowing her to drive away from the Christmas party while intoxicated.
“Each year, hundreds of Canadians are killed and tens of thousands are injured in impaired driving crashes which are completely preventable,” said MADD Canada National President Angeliki Souranis in a recent press release. The problem is most pronounced during the holiday season, when family gatherings, office parties, and New Year’s Eve bashes contribute to an influx of intoxicated drivers on the road. While those people who chose to drive drunk are certainly culpable for their actions, party hosts, business owners, and employers may also bear some responsibility.
While Linda Hunt was deemed to be three quarters responsible for the injuries she sustained, she was also awarded a quarter of the $1.2 million case verdict. The court decision was appealed and the case was eventually settled out of court.
The primary takeaway Hunt’s case should be that nobody involved in impaired driving accidents can necessarily claim full innocence. The employer, the pub, and Linda Hunt all bore some responsibility, but as Lewis Smith of the Canada Safety Council pointed out in a recent Ottawa Citizen article, the employer shoulders the majority of the responsibility.
“If the employer is providing alcohol it is their responsibility to take steps to make sure the employee gets home safely,” said Smith. “They are essentially responsible from the moment an employee arrives at the party until they get home.”
Private hosts bear different responsibilities than employers. The 2006 Childs v Desormeaux case sheds light onto this scenario. On New Year’s Eve 1998, Desmond Desormeaux left an Ottawa New Year’s Eve house party after consuming 12 beers in less than three hours. Around 1:30 a.m., Desormeaux’s car drifted into oncoming traffic, killing Zoe Childs’ boyfriend and severing her spine, leaving her paraplegic. In 2000, Desormeaux was sentenced to a decade in prison, and in 2002 Childs initiated a civil suit.
Unlike in the Linda Hunt case, the court decided that the party hosts weren’t responsible for Childs’ injuries, as they had not provided Desormeaux with any alcohol and weren’t monitoring his drinking.
“As a general rule,” the case judgement reads, “a social host does not owe a duty of care to a person injured by a guest who has consumed alcohol.”
Best practices
In the case of both office parties and private events, hosts who provide their guests with alcohol have a responsibility to ensure their guests do not drink and drive. At office Christmas parties, employers should provide taxi chits, hire Ubers, offer rides, or arrange for friends or relatives to pick up employees.
When hosting a private gathering where alcohol is served, it is important to name designated drivers, provide food and non-alcoholic options, pay for cabs or offer a couch or spare bed for inebriated guests or, if necessary, confiscate guests’ keys.
Canadian law enforcement fights to reduce impaired driving all year, but never is the effort more focused than during the holiday season. It is important for party hosts to understand that they may be liable for injuries and damages inflicted by inebriated party guests, and that taking steps to prevent inebriated guests from driving is both a moral and legal responsibility.
If you or a member of your family has been involved in a motor vehicle accident resulting from impaired driving, contact Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers personal injury lawyers today. You may be entitled to compensation for you injuries.
Greg Neinstein
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